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Dear Friends of HKSI,
May is a month of hopes and possibilities. Please check out our upcoming “City Reassembled” conversation as well as the Hong Kong studies-related events around the world, many of which are organized by members of the Global Nexus for Hong Kong Studies, of which the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative is proud and honored to be a founding partner.
Also, I was recently reminded by my social media that it was five years ago, in April of 2017, that my colleagues and I formally launched the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative (see our albums for a look back at some of our events). We thank you for your continual support, and we look forward to collaborations.
With very best wishes,
Leo K. Shin 單國鉞
Associate Professor, History and Asian Studies
Convenor, Hong Kong Studies Initiative 共研香江
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver
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Reading + Conversation
Thursday, 19 May 2022, 17:00–18:30 PDT
The Hong Kong and Taiwanese Diaspora in the Literary Imagination
Sam Cheuk and Julia Lin
Moderated by Allan Cho
via Zoom
A City Reassembled and explorAsian Festival Event
Details: hksi.ubc.ca/events/event/webinar-literary-imagination/
The world of Hong Kong and Taiwanese literature is obviously not limited to literary works written in Chinese by writers living in Hong Kong or Taiwan. Not only is there a significant body of writings in English by authors based in Hong Kong or Taiwan (such as Xu Xi, Timothy Mo, Dorothy Tse, Tammy Ho, Nicholas Wong, Chih-Ying Lay, to name a few), the coming of age of a new generation of Hong Kong-born and Taiwan-born Canadian writers, whose literary works often draw on their transnational experiences, has also added much richness to the literature of Hong Kong and Taiwan—not to mention that of Canada. Join us for a conversation with authors Sam Cheuk and Julia Lin, along with moderator Allan Cho, on their works and journeys.
Sam Cheuk is the Hong Kong-born Canadian author of Love Figures (2011), Deus et Machina (2017), and Postscripts from a City Burning (2021). He holds an MFA in creative writing from New York University and a BA in English literature from the University of Toronto. Sam is currently working on Marginalia, which examines the function, execution, and generative potential behind censorship. He lives in Vancouver.
Julia Lin was born in Taiwan and immigrated to Canada (after having also lived in Vietnam) with her family when she was nine. She holds a MSc in Immunology from the University of Toronto and a post-graduate degree in computing education from the University of British Columbia. In addition to Miah (2012), the first Taiwanese-Canadian story collection, Julia is also the author of Shadows of the Crimson Sun: One Man’s Life in Manchuria, Taiwan, and North America (2017).
Allan Cho is a librarian, editor, and community organizer. He writes about libraries, publishing, and Asian Canadian/American culture. He is the Executive Director of the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop.
This reading + conversation is organized by the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative, the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop, and the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society/explorASIAN Festival and is co-sponsored by: Department of Asian Studies, Department of History, Centre for Chinese Research, Centre for Migration Studies, Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies, Public Humanities Hub, and the Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster.
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Conversation + Celebration
Wednesday, 4 May 2022, 16:00–18:00 PDT
Re-Imagining Asian Canadian Futures
Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre, UBC
6163 University Blvd, Vancouver
// What does it mean to be Asian Canadian? How can we shape our future by using the connections between our past and present? This panel will discuss the role of community engaged research in the pursuit of more socially just futures for Asian Canadian communities. //
Friends of HKSI are invited to take part in this inaugural event of the newly-established Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement at the University of British Columbia.
Details: arts.ubc.ca/events/event/acre-launch-event/
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Theater
Wednesday, 18 May 2022, 19:30–21:00 PDT (English)
Friday, 20 May 2022, 19:30–21:00 PDT (Cantonese)
DOTS 想 • 點
Annie Cheung, Hong Kong Baptist University
Asian Centre Auditorium, UBC
1871 West Mall, Vancouver
// Written and performed by Annie Cheung, DOTS is her first solo Self-Revelatory performance. Established by the pioneering American drama therapist Professor Renée Emunah, this genre of theatre uses real life experiences of the performer as materials for creation and merges drama therapy and theatre. Teetering dangerously between tragedy and comedy, with brutal honesty and humour, Annie explores her most private struggles in life and death, in love and sex, on earth and in the demonic realm, in self-destruction and rebirth. //
This event is hosted by the UBC Cantonese Language Program.
Details: cantonese.arts.ubc.ca/events/event/dots/
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Community Fair
Saturday, 14 May 2022, 12:00–18:00 PDT
Vancouver Hong Kong Fair 香港人市集
Harbour Centre, SFU
555 W Hastings St., Vancouver
// Taking place during Asian Heritage Month, the inaugural Vancouver Hong Kong Fair is an exciting cultural event for Hong Kongers across the city to celebrate their culture! The fair features more than 50 booths and displays showcasing Hong Konger artisans, associations, products, and crafts. There will also be events, painting parties, mahjong and games stationed throughout the space. //
This community fair is organized by HK House 香港屋.
Details: showpass.com/vancouver-hong-kong-fair/
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Festival
ExplorASIAN Festival
May 2022
To celebrate the Asian Heritage Month, check out the sixty some virtual and in-person events of the 26th explorASIAN Festival, including, not least, “The Hong Kong and Taiwanese Diaspora in the Literary Imagination,” a conversation co-organized by the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative and the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop.
This festival is organized by the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society.
Details: explorasian.org/2022/04/15/welcome-to-explorasian-festival-2022/
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Book Launch
Wednesday, 4 May, 2022, 18:00 HKT
Main Melody Films: Hong Kong Directors in Mainland China
Prof. Yiu-Wai Chu, University of Hong Kong
via Zoom
Prof. Yiu-Wai Chu, Director of the Hong Kong Studies Programme at the University of Hong Kong and Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Humanities, will present his latest book, which focuses on the contributions of Hong Kong filmmakers in the making of "main melody" blockbusters.
This book launch is co-organized by the Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures and the Department of Comparative Literature of the University of Hong Kong.
Details: csgchku.wordpress.com/2022/04/09/book-launch-main-melody-films-hong-kong-directors-in-mainland-china/
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Symposium
Thursday, 5 May 2022, 18:00 PDT
Will Hong Kong Become a Mandarin City?
James Griffiths, The Globe and Mail
Gina Anne Tam, Trinity University, San Antonio
Raymond Pai, University of British Columbia
// In this symposium, a panel of experts discusses the past, present and future of Cantonese in Hong Kong. Will Hong Kong, dubbed as the greatest Cantonese city, become a place that speaks predominantly Mandarin Chinese? What then will happen to Cantonese, in Hong Kong and overseas diasporas? //
This symposium is organized by the Global Hong Kong Studies @ University of California.
Details: globalhks-uc.org/will-hong-kong-become-a-madarin-city
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Bernard H. K. Luk Memorial Lecture
Tuesday, 24 May 2022, 11:00–13:00 EDT
Envisioning Global Hong Kong Studies: Possibilities, Politics and Praxis
Prof. Ching Kwan Lee, UCLA
Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library
8th Floor, 130 St. George Street, Toronto
// The talk will sketch three intellectual approaches to developing Hong Kong Studies as a globally relevant and significant field of knowledge. Using recent studies as examples, she illustrates the epistemic possibilities of construing (1) Hong Kong as a case, (2) Hong Kong outside in and (3) Hong Kong as global assemblage. As knowledge production is always and necessarily embedded in historical and social contexts, what kinds of politics and praxis express, enable, and repress this emerging field? //
The Bernard H. K. Luk Memorial Lecture in Hong Kong Studies is hosted by the York Centre for Asian Research, York University.
Details: eventbrite.ca/e/2022-bernard-hk-luk-memorial-lecture-in-hong-kong-studies-registration-314507619757
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Webinar
Thursday, 26 May 2022, 9:30–11:00 SGT
Formalizing Colonial Hong Kong: Ending New Squatting in 1984
Prof. Alan Smart, University of Calgary
Fung Chi Keung Charles, Chinese University of Hong Kong
via Zoom
// The archival research builds on ethnographic work in the 1980s to answer how and why new squatting was finally ended in 1984, when the tide turned against informality more generally. This paper will consider multiple plausible explanations for this shift, and provides new perspectives on the decision-making processes of colonial Hong Kong, including a recognition of informality within government itself, as well as in the society it struggled to control. //
This webinar is organized by the Hong Kong Research Hub at the Nanyang Technological University at Singapore.
Details: ntu.edu.sg/soh/news-events/events/detail/2022/05/26/research-events/formalizing-colonial-hong-kong-ending-new-squatting-in-1984
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Webinar
Thursday, 26 May 2022, 16:00 PDT
Locating Decoloniality, Leftism, and Internationalism in Hong Kong
Sophia Chan, Oxford University
Christina Chung, University of Washington
Promise Li, Princeton University
via Zoom
// Decolonial and leftist perspectives on Hong Kong, though important, have largely been sidelined or unidentified in the city’s recent struggles for democracy and self-determination. Although discourses and practices that have emerged, such as labor union organizing and boycotting, may not explicitly operate under the banners of leftism or decoloniality in Hong Kong, examining them under these frameworks can offer significant historical, transnational, and prefigurative sight lines with which to contextualize and interpret their impacts. This book talk explores these decolonial, leftist, and internationalist practices in Hong Kong as a submerged but long-standing tradition of its own. //
This webinar is organized by the Global Hong Kong Studies @ University of California.
Details: globalhks-uc.org/locating-decoloniality-leftism-and-internationalism-in-hong-kong
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Webinar
Friday, 27 May 2022 14:00–15:30 (GMT+1)
Pearl of the World: Hong Kong and its Transregional Networks
Prof. John Carroll, University of Hong Kong
Dr. Peter Hamilton, Hong Kong Lingnan University
Dr. Denise Ho, Yale University
Prof. Elizabeth Sinn, University of Hong Kong
Moderated by Prof. William Hurst, University of Cambridge
via Zoom
// This roundtable session will consist of scholars who have examined Hong Kong’s transregional history. It aims at illustrating the city’s importance to the world’s intertwining networks, be they historical or contemporary. Speakers will share how they began their transregional research on Hong Kong and why this city matters in networks beyond East Asia. Participants will consider not only how Hong Kong engaged in these networks, but also how this city contributed to, influenced, or even shaped forces that have transformed the contemporary world, including the Cold War, decolonisation, and the politics of Greater China. //
This webinar is organized by the Centre for Geopolitics, University of Cambridge.
Details: cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3neQd_8fRoiqd2PZ7F8d4w
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Workshop
Immersive Approaches to Hong Kong Studies
May 19 & 26 and June 2, 2022, 16:00–17:30 HKT
Dr. Daisy Tam, Hong Kong Baptist University
Dr. Joseph Li, Hang Seng University
Dr. Sampson Wong, Chinese University of Hong Kong
via Zoom
// The workshop introduces different “immersive” approaches to Hong Kong Studies and hopes to bring innovative perspective to how we may study Hong Kong. Dr. Daisy Tam will shed light on the design of a web app (Breadline) and demonstrate the importance of having scholars (not STEM) in the driving seat of technology for a human-centric design. Dr. Joseph Li will share his findings in Hong Kong Studies through the lens of affective theories. Dr. Sampson Wong will show how navigating and exploring the urban built environment of Hong Kong shape his research agenda. //
This workshop series is organized by the Society for Hong Kong Studies.
Details: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd4ua UX95T4YzTA95Rh4dmchyrV7CiZS3rce3KIBQlSl3nW7w/viewform
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April 8: It was heartening to see all the wonderful projects by both undergraduate and graduate students in the annual UBC Hong Kong/Cantonese Studies showcase (photos).
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April 28: Prof. Ming-sho Ho of National Taiwan University shared his study of the pro-democracy campaigns of Hong Kong’s diasporic communities (webcast | photos).
For a complete list of our video recordings, please visit our YouTube channel or the “Video Library” section of our website.
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Please kindly consider a tax-deductible donation to HKSI (hksi.ubc.ca/support-us). Thank you, as always, for your support of the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative.
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